Famous psychotherapists

Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof (born July 1, 1931) is a Czech psychiatrist, one of the founders of the transpersonal psychology and a researcher in the field of consciousness studies.
Grof is known, in the scientific circles, for his early studies of LSD and its effects on the psyche - psychedelic therapy. Grof constructed a theoretical framework for prenatal, perinatal and transpersonal psychology in which LSD and other powerfully emotional experiences were mapped onto a person's early fetal and neonatal experiences. Following the suppression of legal LSD use in the late 1960s, Grof develop a theory that many states of mind could be explored without drugs by using certain breathing techniques. He continues this work under the trademark "Holotropic Breathwork".

Grof received the VISION 97 award granted by the Foundation of Dagmar and Václav Havel in Prague on October 5, 2007.
Grof is a prolific author, having written numerous books about LSD's use in psychotherapy, altered states of consciousness, and other methods of conducting deep psycho-spiritual work.
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Claudio Naranjo

Claudio Benjamin Naranjo Cohen (born November 24, 1932) is a Chilean-born psychiatrist and author who is considered a pioneer in integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He obtained his medical degree in Santiago de Chile. Naranjo studied medicine, psychology, and spirituality at Harvard, U.C. Berkeley, and the Esalen Institute. At Esalen he apprenticed under the father of Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls. Protoanalysis, Naranjo's method of describing personality types, eventually developed into the well-known Enneagram system.

After returning to Chile he began therapeutic work with harmaline, ibogaine, MDA, and MDMA.

Naranjo has studied numerous esoteric traditions and religions including meditation, Sufism, tantra, Taoism, and Tibetan Buddhism. In 2006 he founded the Naranjo Institute, which sponsors workshops and retreats worldwide that focus on exploring psychological, spiritual, and expressive approaches toward healing and human growth. Claudio Naranjo is author of numerous books and texts.
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Ralph Metzner

Ralph Metzner PhD (born May 18, 1936) is an American psychologist, writer and researcher, born in Germany who has been exploring altered states of consciousness for over fifty years. He received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard. He participated in psychedelic research at Harvard University in the early 1960s with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert aka Ram Dass. Metzner is a psychotherapist, and Professor Emeritus of psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Metzner has been involved in consciousness research, including psychedelics, yoga, meditation and shamanism for over 45 years. He is the co-founder and President of the Green Earth Foundation, a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth.

He is also author of the books: Birth of a Psychedelic Culture (2009); The Expansion of Consciousness (2008); Sacred Mushroom of Visions: Teonanacatl (2005); Ayahuasca: Hallucinogens, Consciousness, and the Spirit of Nature (1999); The Psychedelic Experience, with T. Leary and R. Alpert (1964)
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Leo J. Zeff

Leo Zeff (May 14, 1912 - April 13, 1988) was an American psychologist and pioneer psychotherapist from Oakland, California who used LSD, MDMA, and other psychoactive drugs in psychotherapy in the 1970s.

Leo Zeff was introduced to LSD in 1961 when he was working as a Jungian therapist, and he developed a method for administering LSD to patients during psychotherapy. Eventually he discovered how effective psychedelics could be in helping heal his patients.

In 1977, when Alexander Shulgin introduced Zeff to MDMA, the drug was still legal. After trying MDMA, he abandoned his retirement plans and travelled across the country introducing MDMA to other therapists. Zeff popularized it in the psychotherapeutic community, dubbing it "Adam" because he believed it returned one to a state of primordial innocence.

Zeff is author of the books: The Secret Chief: Conversations with a Pioneer of the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement, MAPS (1997); The Secret Chief Revealed: Conversations with Leo Zeff, Pioneer in the Underground Psychedelic Therapy Movement, MAPS (2004).
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